Author: The News Service of Florida

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE — Florida health officials are holding to a deadline next month for the state’s first medical marijuana businesses to seek permission to begin growing non-euphoric cannabis, even with hearings in license challenges stacked up through mid-summer.

Five dispensing organizations — selected by a three-member panel last year to grow, process and distribute low-THC marijuana — must submit requests for cultivation authorization by Feb. 7, according Department of Health spokeswoman Mara Gambineri.

It’s the first deadline in a process more than a year behind schedule due to previous legal wrangling

But frustrated lawmakers who were instrumental in passage of a 2014 law that legalized low-THC marijuana for patients with severe muscle spasms or cancer are exploring options to speed up the process of getting the cannabis products on the market.

Senate Regulated Industries Chairman Rob Bradley, whose committee is scheduled to get an update from the Department of Health on Wednesday, said he is “interested in creating an alternative administrative procedural system to deal with challenges” to the licenses already awarded by the agency.

“This has gone on too long,” he said, blaming the losing applicants for dragging out the process.

Thirteen challenges to the licenses have been divided among five administrative law judges, with hearings in the cases slated from March through the end of July, according to documents filed with the Division of Administrative Hearings.

None of the challengers has asked for an injunction to prevent the process from moving forward, and health officials are continuing with next month’s deadline, Gambineri said.

But the agency’s decision to keep the process moving despite the possibility that the licenses could be overturned has created angst for winners and losers in the highly competitive medical marijuana arena in Florida, with millions of dollars in start-up and operational costs at stake.

“This has put many people in a very awkward situation,” Louis Rotundo, a lobbyist who represents the Florida Medical Cannabis Association and has a minor interest in at least two applicants, said. “Millions of dollars are at risk, potentially, with no guarantee that, at the end of this process, you’ll still be the license holder.”

It is unknown whether any of the losing applicants will seek to halt the process before the Feb. 7 deadline, but it is almost certain that none of the five winners will do so, despite the uncertainty. While the low-THC form of cannabis is a relatively limited market, companies with the licenses could have a toehold for more-lucrative sales of medical marijuana if a broad ballot initiative passes in November.

Southwest region winner Alpha Foliage, affiliated with Surterra Therapeutics, applied Monday for authorization to begin growing. In a press release, the company said it plans to have cannabis products on the shelves as early as June.

Privately, some of the lawyers involved in the process are questioning whether the department even has the authority to move forward until the administrative complaints are resolved.

The administrative law judges have scheduled hearings during which they will conduct a “comparative review” of the applications, essentially recreating the process the three-member panel underwent to select one dispensing organization in each of five regions throughout the state. The judges could overturn the decisions made by the department’s selection panel, which in turn would likely spark an appeal, meaning the legal challenges could drag on for months, if not years.

Aside from tweaking laws governing administrative procedures, lawmakers could appoint a special master to oversee the application process, said Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican who pushed for the 2014 law, which passed after heavy lobbying by parents of children with severe forms of epilepsy.

“There are benefits and drawbacks to each of those concepts. What we intend to do is evaluate where we are and how to get out of the morass of the (Division of Administrative Hearings) process that is not an attractive way to resolve these disputes,” Gaetz said Monday.

Changing the administrative procedures while the challenges are ongoing could be politically problematic for lawmakers, who could be perceived as having their fingers on the scales in an effort to tip the outcome in favor of certain applicants.

“I’m less concerned about where my finger is and more concerned about getting medical cannabis to people who need it without just going around and around indefinitely,” Gaetz said.

TALLAHASSEE — In a key step for supporters of legalizing medical marijuana, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would go on the November 2016 ballot.

Justices said the proposal, spearheaded by the group People United for Medical Marijuana, meets legal tests that include dealing with a single subject and having a clearly worded ballot title and summary. The Supreme Court does not consider the merits of proposed constitutional amendments but reviews them, in part, to make sure voters would not be misled.

“(The) ballot title and summary fairly inform voters of the purpose of the proposed amendment — the state authorization of medical marijuana for patients with debilitating medical conditions,’’ the 15-page opinion said. “The language is clear and does not mislead voters regarding the actual content of the proposed amendment.”

People United for Medical Marijuana, which is led and heavily financed by Orlando lawyer John Morgan, still needs to submit 683,149 valid petition signatures to the state by a Feb. 1 deadline. As of Thursday morning, it had submitted 400,032, according to the state Division of Elections website.

“The unanimous decision by the Florida Supreme Court to approve the new medical marijuana constitutional amendment is a huge victory for hundreds of thousands of sick and suffering Floridians who could benefit from the passage of such a law,” campaign manager Ben Pollara said in a text message.

With the backdrop of December as Impaired Driving Prevention Month, marijuana opponents gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday to talk about the dangers of drugged driving.

But the event also essentially kicked off a campaign to oppose a likely constitutional amendment for the 2016 ballot that would legalize medical marijuana in Florida.

A coalition of groups, which helped defeat a 2014 ballot proposal that would have legalized medical marijuana, will put up billboards across Florida warning people of the dangers of getting behind the wheel while under the influence of drugs, both legal and illegal.

Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, said even as drunken driving is down nationwide, drugged driving has increased, especially in states that have legalized marijuana in some form.

“When you are hurt by an impaired driver, it doesn’t matter whether it is alcohol or marijuana,” Rouson said. “You are still hurt. We want to protect the safety of our roadways, of our children, and our families from the increase of this.”

The 2014 ballot proposal to legalize medical marijuana fell just short of the 60 percent threshold needed for passage. A similar measure is likely to be on the 2016 ballot, and lawmakers also are considering bills that could legalize medical marijuana for at least some patients.

“We will continue to do what we have done all along … to tell people that marijuana is a dangerous drug, a very harmful drug, has an impact on society,” said Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation. “Impaired driving is one of those impacts. There will be other impacts that we’ll talk about throughout the year.”

TALLAHASSEE — Nearly a year behind schedule, Florida health officials on Monday selected five “dispensing organizations” to grow, process and distribute non-euphoric medical marijuana for a select group of sick patients.

But many in the industry believe that the biggest challenge in the drawn-out process is yet to come.

The five winners, who scored the highest of 28 applications, are Hackney Nursery in the Northwest region of the state; Chestnut Hill Tree Farm in the Northeast; Knox Nursery in the Central region; Alpha Foliage in the Southwest region; and Costa Nursery Farms in the Southeast region.

Parents of children with severe epilepsy pushed for a 2014 law to legalize the purportedly non-euphoric marijuana — low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD — and contended that it can end or dramatically reduce life-threatening seizures.

Sen. Rob Bradley, who was instrumental in passing the law, said he congratulated state Surgeon General John Armstrong early Monday morning. Applications for the licenses were due on July 8, and Bradley and other lawmakers had become frustrated that it was taking the Department of Health so long to pick the five dispensing organizations.

“I think now the attention should be focused on the industry to make sure that they cause no further delays and we move forward getting this product to these suffering families as quickly as possible,” Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said. “The department did its job. And now it’s time for the industry to step up. No further delays. Let’s move forward.”

But legal challenges over the awarding of the licenses are almost a given.

“It has always been anticipated that there will be challenges, and I’ve seen nothing in this process to persuade me that we will not see some of the winners challenged,” said Louis Rotundo, a lobbyist who represents the Florida Medical Cannabis Association and who also has a small ownership interest in at least one of the losing applicants.

Losers have 21 days to file challenges, but Patricia Nelson, a former director of the Department of Health’s Office of Compassionate Use who served on the three-member panel that graded the applications, said earlier this year that the challenges to the licenses will not hold up the process.

The winners of the licenses have 75 days to request “cultivation authorization” and, once that authorization has been granted, must begin dispensing the low-THC products within 210 days, meaning that the low-THC products could be on the shelves by next summer. The winners also have 10 business days to post $5 million performance bonds.

Meanwhile, losing applicants are trying to make sense of more than 600 pages of scorecards used to grade the applications by the panel comprised of Nelson; her successor, Christian Bax; and accountant Ellyn Hutson.

“I’ve got a number of calls from people trying to figure out how they got scored,” said Jeff Sharkey, a lobbyist who formed the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida and is affiliated with two nurseries that didn’t make the cut. “From that, people will make some decisions. Going back to growing tomatoes is option one. Option two is, some people have raised concerns about the perception of the nursery rulemaking committee and trying to figure out their scores and whether or not there are grounds for a protest. That’s kind of a normal review process for folks who’ve lost.”

Implementation of the law has been delayed due to legal challenges and an administrative law judge, who last year rejected the Department of Health’s first stab at a rule that would have used a lottery system to choose the license winners.

The department then held a rare “negotiated rulemaking workshop” — comprised of industry insiders, including Florida nurseries and marijuana experts from other states — to craft the regulations for the state’s marijuana industry.

Under the law passed last year and approved by Gov. Rick Scott, only nurseries that have been in business in Florida for at least 30 years and grow a minimum of 400,000 plants at the time they applied for a license were eligible to become one of the five dispensing organizations.

The nurseries teamed up with a variety of consultants, including out-of-state marijuana growers, in the hopes of edging out the competition.

Four of the five winners of the licenses — Chestnut Hill, Costa, Hackney and Knox — were represented on the rulemaking committee.

One of the most high-profile losers among the 28 applications was Loop’s Nursery, a Jacksonville grower that teamed up with the Stanley Brothers, a Colorado family that developed the “Charlotte’s Web” strain of cannabis whose name has become almost synonymous with low-THC, high-CBD medical marijuana.

Peyton Moseley, the husband of committee member Holley Moseley, is also part of Loop’s team. Holley Moseley heads up the “Realm of Caring Florida” non-profit organization also linked with the nursery. The Moseleys lobbied fiercely for the low-THC law on behalf of their daughter, RayAnn, last year.

Nearly all of the winners are represented by some of Tallahassee’s most influential lobbyists. Costa is represented by the Southern Strategy Group, while lobbyist Brian Ballard represents Hackney and Jorge Chamizo is the registered lobbyist for Knox Nurseries.

Alpha Foliage, owned by John and Carolyn DeMott, applied in two separate regions. The nursery has partnered with Surterra Florida, a limited liability corporation whose officers include two Atlanta investors also seeking to establish a footprint in Georgia’s nascent medical-marijuana industry. Alex Havenick, whose mother Barbara owns greyhound tracks in Naples and Miami, is also one of the officers of the Florida group. The nursery is also affiliated with Surterra Holdings, represented by lobbyists Ron Book and Billy Rubin.

Many of the applicants had applied for the low-THC licenses in the hope of expanding their businesses in the event that a constitutional amendment legalizing full-strength medical marijuana passed. That amendment narrowly failed last year, but a nearly identical measure is almost certain to go before voters next November.

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE — Two key lawmakers Wednesday proposed allowing terminally ill patients to obtain medical marijuana to help grapple with pain, the latest twist in a nearly two-year debate about how to address the high-profile — and emotionally charged — issue.

Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, held a news conference to announce the proposal, which will be considered during the 2016 legislative session. It comes as state health officials continue trying to carry out a 2014 law allowing limited types of cannabis and as a potential ballot fight looms next year over broader legalization.

Bradley said lawmakers can’t “put our head in the sand” on the medical-marijuana issue, with polls showing that a majority of voters favor making cannabis available to patients.

“The people in our communities who care about cannabis reform, who want to be able to die without being jacked up with opiates and without being in excruciating pain are visiting their legislators,” Gaetz said. “They are making phone calls. They’re sending emails, and it’s working.”

The proposal (HB 307) piggybacks on a law passed earlier this year that allows terminally ill patients to gain access to experimental drugs that have not been approved for general use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That law, dubbed the “Right to Try Act,” is limited to patients who have terminal conditions and requires that they get approvals from two physicians.Those same conditions would apply to the medical-marijuana bill proposed by Bradley and Gaetz.Also, the bill would not allow patients to receive medical marijuana that can be smoked. Cannabis also can be used in other ways, such as in oils. Limiting the form could help make the bill more politically palatable as, for example, the Florida Sheriffs Association said last year it objected to any medical marijuana that could be smoked.Bradley and Gaetz helped spearhead an effort in 2014 to pass a law that allows some patients, such as children with severe forms of epilepsy, to obtain limited types of cannabis that purportedly do not get users high.

But those products, which are low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD, still are not on the market, as the Florida Department of Health ran into legal challenges over regulations and as a licensing process continues for nurseries.

Unlike the 2014 law, the new bill would not be limited to non-euphoric medical marijuana. But it would use the same regulatory structure designed to carry out the 2014 law, including relying on nurseries in five regions of the state that will be awarded licenses to grow, process and dispense cannabis.

Polls have consistently shown that a majority of voters back at least the concept of allowing medical marijuana. A University of South Florida survey released this week put support at 55 percent.”This is an issue that people care about,” Bradley said. “This is an issue that we need to talk about. We’ve been elected to do the people’s business, and I take it very seriously when this is something that is on people’s minds. We need to address it.”

The news of a possible breakthrough in allowing full-strength marijuana for terminal patients came a day after the Department of Health faced criticism for the slow pace at which it is carrying out the Compassionate Care Act of 2014, which enables use of non-euphoric cannabis extracts for patients dying of cancer and for patients diagnosed with epilepsy or severe muscle spasms.

A day after facing criticism for the pace of carrying out a 2014 medical-marijuana law, the Florida Department of Health said Wednesday it expects to issue key licenses to five nurseries this fall.

Full-strength marijuana is still completely illegal in Florida, even though it is being used in state-sanctioned medical marijuana programs in 23 states plus the District of Columbia.

United For Care says it plans to be back on the ballot in November 2016 with a proposed constitutional amendment legalizing medical use of full-strength marijuana for a much wider range of medical conditions. And two other groups are getting petition signatures on porposals to legalize marijuana for adult use in Florida. The two proposals are called Regulate Florida and Floridians for Freedom.

“This is a job for legislators to do, not the blunt instrument of a constitutional amendment,” Bradley said Wednesday. “But we kind of lose that argument, and rightfully so, if we just say that but then don’t do anything about it and not address legitimate concerns that are raised to us by our constituents.”

Bradley and Gaetz were lead sponsors of the 2014 law, which became widely known as the “Charlotte’s Web” bill because of a type of medical marijuana that it allowed.

In all, the department’s panel is considering 28 applications for the coveted licenses.

TALLAHASSEE — State health officials last week announced another shake-up in the effort to get Florida’s medical-marijuana industry off the ground.

Less than a month after being appointed to a three-member team that will choose five nurseries to grow, process and dispense medical marijuana and derivative products, accountant Ann Filloon is stepping down.

Filloon “has decided to remove herself from the panel to focus on her duties as the fiscal unit director with the Division of Children’s Medical Services,” according to a news release issued by the Department of Health.

Filloon is being replaced by Ellyn Hutson, an accountant with a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Clemson University and a master’s degree in accounting from Florida State University, according to the release.

Hutson joins Christian Bax, executive director of the department’s Office of Compassionate Use, and Patricia Nelson, a special adviser to Gov. Rick Scott. Nelson was Bax’s predecessor and shepherded creation of the industry’s preliminary guidelines, including the applications from growers.

Under a rule created earlier this year, the selection committee must be comprised of the chief of the Office of Compassionate Use, an accountant and a member of the governor’s Statewide Drug Advisory Policy Council appointed by the state surgeon general, who also serves as the secretary of the Department of Health.

Twenty-four nurseries — which have joined forces with consultants, investors and out-of-state pot growers — are vying to be one of five “dispensing organizations” with licenses to grow cannabis that is low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD.

Parents of children with a severe form of epilepsy pushed the Legislature last year to approve the low-THC cannabis, believing it can end or dramatically reduce life-threatening seizures.

Doctors who have undergone special training were supposed to begin ordering the low-THC products for eligible patients — those with cancer or severe muscle spasms — on Jan. 1.

But legal challenges and a judge’s decision last year that tossed out health officials’ first stab at a rule put implementation of the law far behind what lawmakers envisioned. Health officials have not said how long the committee will take to evaluate the applications, which include at least four in each of five regions of the state.

Concentrate made from high-CBD, low-THC marijuana along with syringe used for oral administration

By Dara Kam

News Service of Florida

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE– Influential Tallahassee insiders — and a former lawmaker who is the grandson of one of Florida’s most-renowned citrus barons — have banded together with the owner of an abortion clinic to get in on the ground floor of the state’s burgeoning medical-marijuana industry.

Tree King-Tree Farms, located in Quincy, disclosed its team of lobbyists, lawyers, investors and consultants in an application for one of five, highly sought-after “dispensing organization” licenses to grow, process and dispense a type of non-euphoric medical marijuana authorized last year by the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott.

The “Northwest Compassionate Care” team, comprised of Tree King and others, includes powerful Tallahassee movers and shakers.

But the woman who assembled the coalition — a onetime Republican National Committee staffer — said she was motivated to enter the arena for personal, not political or financial, reasons.

One backer listed on the 241-page application — among the shortest of the 28 applications received by the Department of Health earlier this month — is DeVoe Moore, a wealthy Tallahassee businessman who has a center named after him at Florida State University.

Another investor is former legislator Baxter Troutman, a grandson of the late citrus magnate Ben Hill Griffin Jr., for whom the University of Florida football stadium is named.

The applicant’s legal adviser is Sam Ard, a veteran Tallahassee lobbyist and lawyer with a focus on agriculture.

Also with a small share in the operation is Louis Rotundo, a lobbyist who represents the Florida Medical Cannabis Association and has been an active participant in the development of the law and the rules governing the low-THC marijuana industry.

The application lists powerful lobbyist Billy Rubin, a close ally of the governor, as its “governmental affairs” consultant.

But Rubin, who represents a separate client seeking a license in the same Northwest region of the state, denied having anything to do with the Tree King consortium.

“We are not sure how this was listed in error, but it is important to rectify the situation,” Rubin’s lawyer said in a letter sent Monday to health regulators.

Rosier blamed the inclusion of Rubin in the application on a scramble to get the forms in before a 5 p.m. deadline on July 8. The group’s application was time-stamped at 4:57 p.m.

Rosier said she assembled the team largely through her connections as a girls’ basketball and softball coach in Tallahassee. For more than a decade, Rosier has volunteered as a coach for the YMCA and Tallahassee youth programs. She takes pride in the number of players for whom she has helped secure scholarships.

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE — Even before selecting five nurseries to become Florida’s first legal pot producers, Department of Health officials will face a challenge from at least one grower whose application was tossed out because it was late.

The department’s Office of Compassionate Use staff rejected two of the 30 applications from nurseries hoping to get chosen as one of the five coveted “dispensing organizations.” Both were tossed because they were received after a 5 p.m. deadline following a frenzied scene during a torrential downpour July 8 at the agency’s headquarters.

Both nurseries say their representatives were told by Department of Health workers that the 5 p.m. deadline didn’t apply.

Lawyers for O.F. Nelson & Sons say they intend to challenge the rejection because the Apopka-based nursery’s representatives were told that the deadline was extended for a day, in part because of the weather.

“Our application was complete, and we were prepared to submit it until the DOH expressly represented that it would extend the deadline a day. We relied on that representation, and the following day the DOH accepted our application and fee without reservation. We only recently discovered that the DOH rejected the application despite its previous assurances that we were timely,” Derek Young, a lawyer with Kaplan Young & Moll Parron who represents the nursery, told The News Service of Florida on Friday.

The O.F. Nelson application was time-stamped 12 p.m. on July 9.

“Our dispensing organization is by far the most qualified and includes one of the leading medical cannabis companies in the world. Florida’s patient population deserves the high standards of quality and safety our dispensing organization represents, and we therefore intend to challenge the DOH’s indefensible position to ensure our patients receive exactly that,” Young said.

Ed Miller and Son Nursery also received a letter from Patricia Nelson, then-director of the Office of Compassionate Use, saying that the application from the Palm City nursery — time-stamped at 5:27 p.m. July 8 — was “untimely.” Nelson left the Office of Compassionate Use post a week ago.

The certified letters, sent July 16, also say that the nurseries have 21 days to file a challenge. Department officials referred to state law in response to questions about the rejections.

Ed Miller and Son is trying to get a license in the southeastern region of Florida. Anthony Ardizzone, a partner in the nursery, said the deadline wasn’t clear and he is considering a challenge.

“We’re reviewing our options,” he told The News Service of Florida this week.

While the application for the dispensing organizations said that documents would be accepted “no later than 5 p.m.” July 8, the Office of Compassionate Use’s website says that the applications would be taken “through” 5 p.m.

Ardizzone is relying on Webster’s Dictionary definition of “through,” which means “during the entire period of” or “from the beginning to the end of.” That means the applications should have been accepted all through the 5 o’clock hour until 6 p.m., according to Ardizzone.

Ardizzone also said that a representative who delivered his nearly 2,000-page application was told by a Department of Health worker that applications received before 5:30 “would be OK.”

“The doors were open. It was accepted. It was received,” Ardizzone said. “Our contention is that they took it. And they took additional information two days later.”

The health department responded to requests for comment with excerpts from a rule, which says that applications would be received “no earlier than 10:00 AM, Eastern Time, on the effective date of this rule and no later than 5:00 PM, Eastern Time, 21 calendar days after the effective date of this rule.” The rule went into effect on June 17.

Health Department spokeswoman Mara Burger also referred to the language in letters sent to the two nurseries citing Florida law allowing affected parties to petition for administrative hearings within 21 days of receiving the letters.

Nearly all of those seeking licenses waited until the last day to submit the applications, resulting in a frenzy at the health department’s Tallahassee headquarters as the 5 p.m. deadline loomed and a downpour raged during rush-hour traffic, according to one observer.

The door to the building facing the street was locked and visitors were supposed to enter through a side door, creating more confusion as individuals toting boxes of documents scrambled to beat the clock, said Jeff Sharkey, a lobbyist who represents the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida, which he founded.

“You could smell the anxiety and the desperation in the air as the clock ticked towards 5 p.m.,” Sharkey said. “People are coming in and handing in their applications. … One person came at 4:55 and ran up to the door and I opened the door for him. They stamped in at 4:57.”

Things worsened one minute before 5 p.m., Sharkey said.

“It’s raining. There’s no place to park out there now. And this poor kid comes screaming up in some little car and grabs this box of stuff and runs up to the door and he’s pounding on the door. And 5:00 is like a minute away,” he said.”His face was up against the glass. He’s mouthing ‘Please open the door!’ He’s sopping wet.”

Sharkey said he opened the door for the man, who was told by a worker that he had missed the 5 p.m. deadline.

“And the poor kid just freaked out,” Sharkey said.

A three-member panel, which includes the new head of the Office of Compassionate Use, has three months to choose five nurseries — one from each region of the state — to grow, process and distribute marijuana that is low in euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in cannabadiol, or CBD. Parents of children with a severe form of epilepsy pushed the Legislature last year to approve the low-THC cannabis, believing it can end or dramatically reduce life-threatening seizures.

Doctors were supposed to be able to begin ordering the medical marijuana for patients with severe muscle spasms or cancer on Jan. 1, but the 2014 law has been mired in challenges.

In November, Administrative Law Judge W. David Watkins rejected health officials’ first attempt at a rule governing the pot industry, agreeing with Miami-based Costa Farms and others that objected to the Department of Health’s proposed use of a lottery to pick the licensees.

Watkins upheld a second version of the rule in May after it, too, was challenged.

Under the current regulations, the panel will pick the five licensees based on a weighted scorecard that evaluates cultivation, processing, dispensing, financials and the operation’s medical director.

Nurseries that have been doing business in Florida for at least 30 continuous years and grow a minimum of 400,000 plants at the time they apply are eligible for a license. The applications ask nurseries about their investors, pot consultants, protocols and the types of cannabis they intend to cultivate.

Applicants had 21 days to collect documents, secure the $5 million bond required in the law and submit them to state health officials, a timeline many grumbled was too hasty. Some out-of-state consultants were charging at least $150,000 to craft the applications.

Nearly everyone in the industry, including those on the sidelines, predict that, once awarded, the licenses will be challenged. From four to seven nurseries applied in each of the five regions.

In addition to the non-refundable $60,063 application fee, $5 million bond and costs to submit the license, Ardizzone estimated that it would cost $12 million to get his operation up-and-running.

The possibility that Florida voters could have another shot at legalizing full-blown medical marijuana in November 2016 makes the licenses even more appealing. The applications are a public record, except for information that is deemed “proprietary” or is exempt by Florida’s broad open records laws, so losers will be able to scrutinize their competitors’ winning documents.

“Everyone involved in this process has always assumed that the losers of the selection process will challenge. I think that is a given,” said Louis Rotundo, a lobbyist who represents the Florida Medical Cannabis Association.

TALLAHASSEE — Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan has written a $150,000 check to jump-start an effort to get a medical-marijuana initiative back on the ballot in 2016.

United for Care — the political group behind the proposal — started hiring petition-gatherers to ensure the group does not get caught playing catch-up again.

Garnering more than 58 percent of the vote last November, a medical-marijuana initiative fell just short of the 60 percent approval required for constitutional changes. Morgan, who spent at least $5 million on the effort last year, says he is determined to give voters another stab at a revised version. Supporters hope heavier voter turnout for the presidential election will push the pot initiative above the 60 percent threshold.

United for Care campaign manager Ben Pollara said he thinks the group will need about $3 million to cover the costs of professional petition-gatherers and legal fees to get the initiative on the ballot. Pollara said he plans to have the paid workers fanned out statewide by July 1.

Pollara needs to turn in 683,149 valid petition signatures to the Department of State by Feb. 1 to get on the ballot. First, the group has to submit 10 percent of those petitions to the Florida Supreme Court to trigger a review of the revamped initiative, now entitled “Use of Medical Marijuana for Debilitating Conditions.”

TALLAHASSEE — Last week, Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan wrote a $150,000 check to jump-start an effort to get a medical-marijuana initiative back on the ballot in 2016.

This week, United for Care — the political group behind the proposal — started hiring petition-gatherers to ensure the group doesn’t get caught playing catch-up again.

Garnering more than 58 percent of the vote last November, a medical-marijuana initiative fell just short of the 60 percent approval required for constitutional changes. Morgan, who spent at least $5 million on the effort last year, is determined to give voters another stab at a revised version. Supporters hope heavier voter turnout for the presidential election will push the pot initiative above the 60 percent threshold.

United for Care campaign manager Ben Pollara said he thinks the group will need about $3 million to cover the costs of professional petition-gatherers and legal fees to get the initiative on the ballot. Pollara said he plans to have the paid workers fanned out statewide by July 1.

Pollara needs to turn in 683,149 valid petition signatures to the Department of State by Feb. 1 to get on the ballot. First, the group has to submit 10 percent of those petitions to the Florida Supreme Court to trigger a review of the revamped initiative, now entitled “Use of Medical Marijuana for Debilitating Conditions.”

United for Care spent more than $4.5 million last year on legal fees, including the Supreme Court vetting of the proposal. Pollara anticipates a smaller legal tab for the 2016 initiative, as the court already approved last year’s measure and the new version has been tweaked to accommodate concerns of the justices and opponents.

But Pollara estimates his organization will have to spend up to another $7 million on advertising. Last year, an opposition group called the Drug Free Florida Committee collected more than $6 million — including $5.5 million from Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson — to fight the measure.

“We don’t need to out-communicate the opposition. We don’t even need to match the opposition. But we do need to get out our message,” Pollara said Thursday.

Morgan pledged “to do whatever it takes to put medical marijuana back to the people of Florida” in a video distributed last week. Supporters can’t rely on the Legislature to legalize marijuana for sick patients, Morgan said.

“Listen, they ignored us last time. But they won’t be able to ignore us next time,” he said.